LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
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UNITED STATES OE AMEEIOA. 



CSmiffttu m> ¥♦ SMrfcett* 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE 



WILLIAM H. Y. HACKETT. 



FRANK W. HACKETT 



i.'t'printed from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register 
lor. January, 1879. 



«w»s^; 



BOSTON : 
FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 

18 7 9. 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM H. Y. HACKETT. 



A GENERATION is fast disappearing from among us, which 
had grown into early manhood long before steam, the tele- 
graph, or the improved methods of education began to work changes 
in the conditions of society. Their struggles to obtain a start in 
life were made under circumstances which it is well nigh impossible 
should again exist. Not that privation and hardship do not await 
the youth of to-day ; but the rugged features which characterized 
New England living at the opening of the present century, stamped 
upon young men from the farm an impress, whose precise likeness 
is no longer to be seen. The story of their career cannot too often 
be told, to encourage the formation of those habits of frugality and 
patient industry which alone lead to usefulness and success. 

William Henry Young Hackett died at his residence in 
Portsmouth, N. H., August 9, 1878, aged seventy-seven years and 
ten months. He was born at Gilmanton, N. H., September 24, 
1800, and was the eldest of six sons and three daughters, children 
of Allen and Mary (Young) Hackett. The others were Jeremiah 
Mason, Nancy Young, Hiram Stephen, Mary Jane (wife of An- 
drew Dyer Leighton), living at Belmont, N. H. ; Eliza Ann (wife 
of Jeremiah Carlton Hackett), living at Boston ; George Washing- 
ton, Charles Alfred (living at the homestead in Belmont, formerly 
a part of Gilmanton), and Luther Allen. 

It is difficult to determine whence came the two or three indivi- 
duals of the Hackett name, of whom traces are found soon after the 
settlements in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Occasional 
mention is made of the name in English history, and John Placket 
(bishop of Litchfield, 1661-70) has secured a place in literature by 
his life of Archbishop Williams ; while Sir Charles Hacket, an 



officer in the service of the Estates, who aided in capturing Mon- 
trose, lives under a ban in the popular ballad of "The Gallant 
Grahams." We find Hackettstown in Carlow County, Ireland; 
and since the time of Sir Thomas Ilacket, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 
in 1G88, and a rigid catholic, the name occurs with considerable 
frequency. Certain physical traits in the descendants of the Xew 
England ancestry lend credibility to a tradition that they came from 
Holland, whence, in 1794, emigrated Thomas, father of James Henry 
Hackett, the actor, whose son, John Keteltas, has been for some 
years Recorder of Xew York city. 

The earliest ancestor now known of William Henry Young Hack- 
ett, bore the family name of William, and lived at Salisbury, Mass., 
where many of his descendants were shipwrights. He was probably 
the " Will Hacket," who had a grant in 1656, at Dover, " touching 
Bellemie's Bank freshet," and was taxed at Cocheco, 1657-8. He 
sold his land to Thomas Hanson and went to Exeter, where a 
daughter Maiy was born in 1665. By occupation a mariner, Capt. 
William Hackett married Sarah Barnard, at Salisbury, January 31, 
1667 ; owned land in that town, and lived there till his death in 
1713. John, the second child of William and Sarah, was born at 
Amesbury, in 1669; all the other children at Salisbury. "Will 
Hacket " took the oath of allegiance at Exeter in 1667, and was 
rated there in the province lists in 1681 and 1682. Savage thinks 
the two may be the same person, and that he may originally have 
come from Lynn, where was Jabez in 1644, who removed to 
Taunton. 

Capt. William Hackett commanded the sloop " Indeavour of 
Salsbury, in the county of Xorfolk, in Xew England," in 1671, and 
in May of that year acted a conspicuous part in the first recorded 
jury trial in Xew Jersey. Gov. Carteret had insisted that payment 
of duties at the custom-house in Xew York, by vessels entering 
Sandy Hook, gave no right to trade in the province of Xew Jersey, 
but that license therefor should be taken out at the custom-house in 
Elizabeth Town. Capt. Hackett, not entertaining that view of pro- 
vincial sovereignty, undertook to trade on the Jersey side, after 
having paid the duties only at Xew York. The governor seized his 
vessel and summoned a jury to try the offender upon a charge of 
illegal trading. The captain conducted the defence himself, and is 
said to have presented with much ability fourteen grounds for acquit- 
tal, enough, one would conceive, to bewilder an ordinary jury. 
That body, " after a 2d and 3d going forth," came in and declared 
that " the matter Committed to them is of too great waight for them," 
and were discharged. A second jury suited the governor's purpose 
better. They promptly found Capt. Hackett guilty, and his sloop 
was declared forfeited.* 

* III. E. J. Records, 75; Hatfield's History of Elizabeth, 135. 



The children of William and Sarah Hackett were Sarah, John, 
Ephraim, William, Judah, Ebenezer and Katharine. From Judah 
was descended the late Dr. Horatio Baleh Hackett, the distinguished 
biblical scholar and writer. Ebenezer, born Oct. 17, 1(587, mar- 
ried Hannah, daughter of Jarves King, and had twelve children, the 
oldest son, Ephraim, having been born at Salisbury, Oct. 3,1711. 

At the age of twenty-three, Ephraim Hackett married Dorothy, 
daughter of Stillson Allen, of Salisbury, and great-granddaughter 
of Mr. William Allen, a leading man at the settlement of the town 
in 1638. In 1749, or near that date, Ephraim Hackett made his way 
to Canterbury, N.H., then little more than a wilderness, though grant- 
ed twenty-two years earlier. He bought a large tract of land, took 
an active part in town and parish matters, and lived to a hearty 
old age upon the "Hackett homestead." The children of Ephraim 
and Dorothy were Ezra, 1 Hezekiah, Ezra, 2 Jeremiah, Betty, Mary, 
Ephraim, 1 Miriam, Ephraim, 2 Dorothy, Allen, Charles and Ebene- 
zer, the last six having been born in Canterbury. 

Jeremiah, a farmer of Canterbury, died there in the prime of life, 
in 1797. His children by his wife Polly (Robinson), all born in 
C, were Sarah, Bradbury, Jeremiah, Allen, Daniel, Polly, Asa, 
Betsey, Susan and Patty. Of these, Allen, the father of the subject 
of this sketch, was born July 15, 1777. He studied at Gilmanton 
Academy, at its opening in 1791, and married Mary, daughter of 
Joseph Young, a prominent citizen, who after marrying Anna Fol- 
som, at Exeter, in 1711, had removed thence to Gilmanton, with 
the Folsoms and Gilmans. Mr. Allen Hackett began life as a 
tanner, but soon gave up this occupation for that of a fanner in 
Gilmanton, in which pursuit he met with fair success. He was a 
large, fine-looking man, reserved in manner, a great reader, and of 
considerable repute as a sagacious and influential politician. He 
died in 1848, highly esteemed for his many sterling qualities. 

Mr. Hackett's mother enjoyed a reputation for beauty, as well as 
for superior mental endowments. She had neglected no opportu- 
nity to cultivate her mind, readily assimilated what she gathered from 
books, and proved herself a thoroughly good mother to her child- 
ren. With the taste that William Henry early displayed for study 
she heartily sympathized, and she stimulated his ambition to devote 
himself, upon growing up, to some calling more intellectual than 
farming as then practised. Between mother and son there existed 
a harmony and affection which did much to shape his character and 
insure his success in after life. 

Upon him fell the ordinary duties of the oldest boy of a former's 
family. Though conscientious in the performance of duty, he can- 
not be said to have taken kindly to any species of farm work. Said 
his father, " Clearing up brush heaps is the only mark of a good 
farmer I ever saw in AVilliam Henry." Playmates were few, and 
it was in books that he found his chief recreation. Much of his 
1* 



6 

reading and study was done by candle-light, after the day's work in 
the field. At the age of twelve he was permitted to attend the 
academy at the "Corner" (as the village was called), and walked 
daily two miles each way over a hilly road, besides continuing to 
help his father at spare hours. To purchase a geography and atlas, 
he went into the woods with an axe, and cutting a. cord of wood, 
hauled it to the Corner, where for two dollars he delivered it at the 
purchaser's door. Says Judge Ira A. Eastman, who though his 
junior at the academy, remembers the circumstance: "I do not 
think he did this from necessity (because his father was a man of 
considerable means for those days ) , but from an ambitious and most 
commendable desire not to bring upon his father any more charges 
than he could help. In those times the feeling and disposition of 
young men, farmers' sons, generally was to help forward the inter- 
ests of parents and the household, and to pay all their own expenses, 
when it could possibly be done." 

For the eight years that he prosecuted his studies at Gilmanton 
Academy, he profited by the instruction of Mr. Andrew Mack, a 
Dartmouth graduate, and a highly successful teacher. Mr. Hackett 
was quick to learn, and improved his time to the best advantage. 
Says Asa McFarland, Esq., of Concord: "I remember particu- 
larly the commendation Mr. Mack bestowed upon him for his per- 
severance in acquiring useful knowledge." During this period, in 
addition to working upon the farm, he tended for a brief season in 
a country store, and taught school for several terms. Before he 
left the academy, we find that he had begun his law studies, bor- 
rowing for the purpose text-books of Stephen Moody, Esq., the 
only lawyer in practice at the Corner. Matthew Perkins, Esq., 
received him at the age of twenty into his office at Sanbornton 
Square as a student at law. " I should never," he wrote years 
afterwards, " have quitted farming (which I regard as the happiest 
occupation for those suited to it) , if I had not felt that I must be a 
lawyer or nobody." 

After diligent application to his law studies for about a year and 
a half, he obtained the consent of Ichabod Bartlett to enter his 
office at Portsmouth. In April, 1822, he set out from Gilmanton 
to make, from choice on foot, the trip of more than forty miles to 
Portsmouth. He wore a new homespun suit, the work of his 
mother's hands, and carried a change of clothes in a bundle, which 
with three dollars in money completed his outfit. From Northwood, 
where he passed the night at a friend's house, he happened to be 
taken in a chaise to Portsmouth, arriving there at nightfall, without 
personal acquaintance with a single individual in the town. Rock- 
ingham County could then boast a bar of great distinction. Web- 
ster had but recently left Portsmouth for Boston ; Mason, Bartlett, 
Cutts, and N. A. Haven, Jr., were in active practice, while "Wood- 
Jbury, though upon the bench, kept his law-office open for students, 



of whom Franklin Pierce was one. The brilliant George Sullivan 
lived at Exeter. Mr. Bartlett had acquired an exalted reputation 
for adroitness and skill in the trial of jury cases, qualities which, 
added to his eloquence, were soon to gain him the title upon the 
floor of Congress of " the Randolph of the North." 

Our young candidate for professional honors entered at once upon 
a course of advanced study, varied by office work, which kept him 
busy each day till ten in the evening. To help meet expenses he 
resorted to school-keeping. After teaching the High School at 
Portsmouth for three months (working at the office during spare 
hours and evenings), he was asked to accept the situation as its 
permanent head, at a salary of six hundred dollars a year, an offer 
which he gratefully but promptly declined. His good friends in 
the country were sorely exercised, and predicted that he had made 
the mistake of a life-time. 

In 1824 he was chosen assistant clerk of the Senate, and aa'ain 
in 1825. Three years later he served a term as full clerk of the 
Senate. His admission to the bar took place in January, 1826, 
soon after which he formed a law partnership with N. A. Haven, 
Jr., which promised him great advantages. The sudden death of 
this accomplished and estimable man cut short this privileged rela- 
tion, and for fifty-two years Mr. Hackett continued at the bar with- 
out an associate in business. His practice grew extensive and va- 
ried, both in the state and federal courts, and before committees of 
the legislature. In his early years there was much commercial liti- 
gation, a fair share of which fell to him ; while at a later period 
investments in railroads and manufactories introduced new subjects 
of legal controversy, where his acumen and practical good sense 
were of great value to his clients. Few cases involving property 
to any considerable amount have been litigated in that part of New 
Hampshire during the last half century, in which he has not been 
retained of counsel. Mr. Hackett was admitted to the bar of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, Dec. 13, 18(31, on motion of 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, and argued one or two important causes before 
that tribunal. 

Just as he was coming forward in his pi'ofession, " the case lawyer " 
was disappearing. In the earlier days so scanty were the re- 
ports that a well-equipped practitioner was expected to know pretty 
well by heart the " cases " in which leading principles had been 
laid down, so as to cite them readily from memory. Though Mr. 
Hackett's memory was extraordinary, he had early schooled himself 
to retain principles rather than cases. He had a natural aptitude 
for pursuing a legal doctrine to its results, and applying legal prin- 
ciples to anew condition of things. Upon the submission of a ques- 
tion for his opinion, he would prefer to turn it well over in his mind 
and arrive at a conclusion, before looking at the books. His argu- 
ments, which are in many cases printed in extenso in the N. H. 



8 

Reports, are marked by clearness and logical force, and by a rea- 
soning from a few underlying principles rather than by a display of 
authorities. Not that he omitted a decision that told in his favor, 
for he knew pretty much every point that had been settled in New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts, and held it tenaciously in memory, 
but he had not that superstitious reverence for an authority that is 
sometimes seen at the bar. He believed in law reform, and to him 
as much as to any single member of the profession, is due the foot- 
hold which equity practice has at last got in New Hampshire. He 
declined judicial position, and to the end of his life enjoyed a full 
measure of success as a persuasive advocate, and a safe and judi- 
cious counsellor. At the time of his death he was the president of 
the Bar Association of New Hampshire, and the oldest practitioner 
at the Rockingham bar ; indeed, he had continued in active prac- 
tice a longer period than any of his predecessors at that bar. 

An interesting reminiscence of these fifty-two years is the fact 
that he was the last survivor of the array of eminent counsel en- 
gaged in the Bradbury Cilley will case, tried at Exeter before Chief 
Justice Joel Parker, in 1833. The trial, which lasted more than a 
week, was held in the parish meeting-house, which was crowded 
with those in attendance, many of whom were ladies. For the 
appellants appeared Messrs. Hackett, Sullivan and Mason ; for the 
appellees, Messrs. Bell, Cutts, Atherton and Webster. Mr. Mason 
addressed the jury for four hours, while Mr. Webster consumed 
about six hours, both efforts being masterly displays of forensic elo- 
quence. The jury found for the appellees. An incident of the 
trial Mr. Hackett was accustomed to relate as follows : — Being junior 
counsel, he read the pleadings at the opening, and as he descended 
from the platform to return to one of the pews in front, an elderly 
member of the bar, then retired from practice, motioned to him with 
some concern in his countenance. Mr. H., as he leaned over to 
hear what was to come, could scarcely conceal his amusement at the 
monition, "I am afraid, Sir, that Mr. Mason is not aware what a 
great mistake he is making to undertake this case at his time of life."" 
Mr. Mason was just sixty-five ! 

His active political life, as is true of so many of the profession in 
New Hampshire, may be said to have begun with his law prac- 
tice. Year after year he was counted upon to preside at meetings, 
or to make political addresses, in his own or neighboring towns. He 
warmly espoused the principles of the whig, and its successor, the 
republican party. Repeatedly chosen to represent Portsmouth in 
the legislature, he served upon the important committees of rail- 
roads and the judiciary, soon going to the head of each as chairman. 
To facilitate business, and to prevent measures of doubtful utility 
from being passed, were his objects rather than to win reputation as 
a debater ; still, though he seldom took up the time of the house by 
speech-making, no member retained an influence more weighty or 



more certain to be relied upon, when he head occasion to exercise it. 
Elected to the senate in 1861, his labors and sound judgment greatly 
strengthened the hands of the executive at that stirring period. In 
July of that year he used the following prophetic language, in reply 
to a senator who had denounced the bill for raising troops as un- 
constitutional : " This rebellion is to be crushed and the union pre- 
served. The senator is probably correct in believing that the gov- 
ernment will be stronger after it has subdued the rebellion than 
ever before. Every true man must wish it to be strong enough to 
be able to fulfil its duties. Terrible as this crisis is, it was as in- 
evitable as the American revolution, and will in its results be as 
full of blessings. In the end the rebels will find their level, and 
the loyal men will enjoy a lasting peace under a government of their 
own making." 

In 1862 he was made president of the senate, a position which 
he filled to the acceptance of both political parties. He headed the 
whig electoral ticket for president in 1852, and the republican elec- 
toral ticket at the reelection of Mr. Lincoln in 1864 ; and was one 
of the vice-presidents of the convention which re-nominated Pre- 
sident Grant, in 1872. In 1876 he acted as temporary chairman 
of the convention for revising the constitution of New Hampshire, 
and unexpectedly received a very large and flattering vote as per- 
manent president. He rarely failed to attend a caucus, and proba- 
bly throughout his long life never once omitted to deposit his vote 
on election day. For the last twenty-six years ex-Gov. Goodwin 
and himself went in company to the polls at each election, whether 
municipal, state or federal, and deposited their votes together. 

Mr. Hackett entered the Piscataqua Bank as a director in July, 
1827, and served continuously as a bank director ever since, a period 
of fifty-one years. In January, 1845, upon the organization of 
the Piscataqua Exchange Bank, he became its president, and held 
that office till August, 1863, when the charter expired. He was 
an earnest promoter of the national bank system, and frequently 
communicated with his friend Secretary Chase in person and by 
correspondence upon the details of the subject. While the act cre- 
ating these institutions was pending in Congress, he had made an 
arrangement to organize a national bank at Portsmouth, and await- 
ed for their completion the news of its passage. He at once assumed 
and retained during life the presidency of the First National Bank of 
Portsmouth, which claims the honor of being the first national bank 
organized in the country. He was senior trustee of the Portsmouth 
Savings Bank, one of the oldest institutions of the kind in the union ; 
and president of the Piscataqua Savings Bank, chartered largely by 
his efforts, which went into operation in April, 1878. His continu- 
ous term of service as president of a discount bank, doubtless ex- 
ceeded that of any similar official in the United States. 

To banking Mr. Hackett had given his best thought, and the 



10 

uniform prosperity of the corporations under his charge attests the 
soundness of his judgment upon matters of finance. He under- 
stood the science of investing money, not only as a means of im- 
proving private fortune, but in its wider influence upon the commu- 
nity at large, and upon the national credit. lie was consulted by 
many in various walks of life, seeking advice what to do with their 
savings, whom he encouraged by his kindly manner, and to whom 
he freely accorded the benefit of his long experience. It is safe to 
say that few men in any community, by example, by private coun- 
sel and by public lecture, have done so much to impress upon young 
people the principles of economy and of sober living. 

Like all busv men, he managed to find leisure for the indulgence 
of tastes outside his daily occupation. Besides accomplishing a 
vast amount of miscellaneous reading, he had, while a student, 
formed the habit of contributing to the press, and for over fifty 
years the columns of the Portsmouth Journal were enriched from 
time to time with thoughtful, well- written articles from his pen. 
For about a year, in 1842, he was one of the editors of The Wash- 
ingtonian, a weekly newspaper devoted to the cause of temperance 
by means of moral suasion. At the request of the family he pre- 
pared a memoir, some years since, of Andrew Halliburton (a gentle- 
man of literary tastes at Portsmouth), for private circulation, of which 
a recent critic has said : " It is a model in that kind of composition. 
Clear and epigrammatic in style, with well chosen language and a 
pleasing cadence of structure, the piece displays much nice discrimi- 
nation of character, and abounds in just and judicious reflections." 
He is the author also of an admirable sketch of the late Charles W. 
Brewster, prefixed to the second series of the " Rambles about 
Portsmouth." He wrote numerous essays and lectures, and deliver- 
ed several public addresses upon special occasions, all of which are 
characterized by precision of thought, earnestness of conviction and 
a well sustained style. His chief excellence as a writer is to be 
found in the many obituary and quasi-biographical notices of friends, 
or townsmen, which it had been his fortune for years to furnish. 
Hardly a single individual of prominence in Portsmouth has passed 
away during the last forty years that Mr. Hackett has not sketched 
the events of his life, and presented a kindly but just estimate of 
of his character. To mark through a long stretch of years the 
growth and development of character, and to keep vivid in memory 
a record of his co temporaries, was a habit in which he found peculiar 
pleasure. The last personal frhud for whom he performed the sad 
office of a parting tribute, was Charles B. Goodrich, of Boston. 
They were about the same age, had practised law together at Ports- 
mouth under similar circumstances, and Mr. Goodrich's death, which 
he keenly felt, preceded his own by a little more than two months. 
Though not an antiquary or genealogist, he recognized the fine 
flavor of* an authentic bit of early history or biography ; and in the 



11 

range of local tradition his memory had treasured up a rich fund of 
incident and anecdote. Of late years he was frequently applied to 
for information about people who were passing off the stage half a 
century ago ; and he could recall a name or verify a date from mem- 
ory with apparent ease. His bright clever sayings went the rounds 
of the bar, and he proved no exception to the rule that lawyers, as 
a profession, are good story tellers. When Mr. Hackett related an 
anecdote, and he always had a pertinent one ready, his good humor 
and happy mode of expression brought sure enjoyment to the lis- 
tener. Two years ago, at his suggestion, the bar association of 
New Hampshire appointed a committee of one member from each 
county, of which he was made chairman, to collect materials for 
sketches of the bar of the state from the earliest times. His death, 
it is to be feared, has closed the only source from which much of 
this valuable information could have been derived. 

In recognition of his attainments at the bar, as well as of his lit- 
erary tastes, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of 
A.M. in 1858. When the New Hampshire Historical Society was 
formed at Portsmouth, May 20, 1823, he was present, an incident 
to which he alluded at the semi-centennial celebration at Concord 
in 1873, at which date but one other survivor was living. He did 
not join the society, however, till 1834, since which time he had 
proved himself one of its most efficient members. He was chosen 
its vice president in 1860, and served as president from 1861 to 
1866. 

He had been director in three railroads, of one of which he be- 
came president ; and at his death was a director, or president, of 
several organizations in Portsmouth of a business, educational or 
charitable character ; as well as trustee and treasurer of the Pice 
Public Library, of Kittery, in Maine. 

On the 21st of December, 1826, he married Olive, second daugh- 
ter of Joseph Warren Pickering, Esq., of Portsmouth, a lineal de- 
scendant of John Pickering, who came to Portsmouth in 1636, and 
owned Pickering's Neck, a large tract of land at the south part of 
the town.* The young couple began housekeeping in the dwell- 
ing-house where they ever since lived, where they celebrated their 
golden wedding, and where the widow still survives. They occu- 
pied the same pew in the church of the South Parish (Unitarian) 
for upwards of half a century. 

In person Mr. Hackett lacked but little of six feet in height, 
was of a well built frame, of dark complexion, with fine black 

* Their children and grandchildren are as follows; 

William Henry, b. Dec. 6, 1827 ; m. Mary Wells Healey, of Hampton Falls, N. H., 
Dec. 4, 1851. Children— Mary Gertrude, b. Feb. 20, 1853; Wallace, b. May 1, 1856; Bes- 
sie Bell, b. Feb. 28, 1863. 

Mauianna, b. June 9, 1836; m. Nov. 14, 1877, to Robert Cutts Peirce, of Portsmouth. 

Frank Warren, b. April 11, 1841 ; Harvard, 1861. 

Ellen Louisa, b. Aug. 22, 1842; m. Oct. 11, 1865, to Eben. Morgan Stoddard, of Lcd- 
yard, Conn. Children— Mabel Virginia, b. Portsmonth, Va., Dec. 13, 1870. 



12 

hair that had become but slightly tinged with gray at the date 
of his death ; and was somewhat quick and nervous in move- 
ment. The engraving that accompanies this sketch may be relied 
upon as fairly presenting his features. Happy in his domestic rela- 
tions, while he assumed the responsibilities, he was to a surprising 
degree exempt from the trials and misfortunes of life. And when 
it pleased God to remove him, after years of health and prosperity, 
the stroke was tempered with mercy. In full vigor of mind, and 
with perfect composure, he bade those about him a loving farewell, 
and gently fell asleep. 

It is not for the writer here to venture upon an outline of char- 
acter, where affection may blind one to faults and magnify virtues. 
But in so far as it stands revealed from the facts thus imperfectly set 
forth, do we not recognize in him " a workman that needeth nut to 
be ashamed"? 



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